GUEST COLUMN: Majority should re-evaluate budget priorities

Published May 2, 2013 at 12:30 am

by Rep. Jerry Hertaus

Dist. 33A

Friday marks the end of the biggest week at the legislature thus far. Over the past five days, the House passed billions of dollars in spending bills, including the largest portion of the state budget, the Health and Human Services Omnibus bill, which spends approximately $11 billion dollars over the next two years.

More importantly, the majority passed — with no bipartisan support — one of the largest tax increase proposals this state has ever seen, raising $2.6 billion dollars in taxes in order to pay for their increased spending in nearly every budget area.

With double-digit percent increases in many budget areas that pay for more government employees and wasteful spending programs, I believe it shows a shocking lack of focus on priorities when the majority chooses to cut the Health and Human Services budget by $150 million dollars, including $26 million dollars from nursing homes and senior care centers. With a rapidly aging population, nursing homes and senior care centers continue to face severe funding cuts to provider reimbursement rates. This failure threatens to suspend any further expansion of senior services, for which demand continues to grow daily.

There’s no doubt that we must start to bend the cost curve, and get Health and Human Services spending under control. At approximately 42% of the budget, it is one of the fastest-growing areas of the budget, and if we do nothing, it will continue to consume more and more of the state budget, threatening other legitimate and needed functions of government.

Should we be cutting resources from the most vulnerable in our society? Under current law, the budget passed by the Republican majorities in 2011, nursing homes would have received $26 million dollars more than under the Democrats’ budget plan. These cuts have far reaching impacts; there are over 100 nursing homes and senior care centers around the state that are at risk of closure due to net operating margins of -5% or worse. The previous legislature made a commitment to the Greatest Generation, and the budget that was passed on Monday goes back on that promise.

With tens of millions of dollars in wasteful spending throughout many of the budget bills, I will continue to work with legislators, Republican or Democrat, to find the funding needed to fully fund our nursing homes and senior care centers.

Budgets should be about priorities, and there is perhaps no more important priority than taking care of our senior citizens. They are our grandparents, parents, sisters, and brothers. Rather than investing more money in increased bureaucracy, questionable programs, more government employees, and budget increases to agencies that did not even request them, we should be following through on our past commitments first.

There is simply no excuse why with $3 billion dollars in higher taxes and fees that we can’t find the $26 million dollars in the budget for our seniors. I hope the majority will reconsider and re-evaluate their priorities before this bill comes back to the House for final passage. Seniors, and the citizens of Minnesota expect and deserve better than failing to live up to our promises.

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In one sentence you condem spending for the most vulnurable in our society, and in the next you complain we aren’t spending enough. Is taking care of people only important until they are born and then after they’re 65? What about all those that are barely hanging on because of the lousy policies and huge tax breaks your party has given it’s richest members?

I’m sure you don’t see those insignificant people from your million dollar house, but they DO exist – they’re the ones you have to walk over to get to your new cushy job.

Why not stick to your back room deals and keep your mouth shut in public already.

Jim

Jerry complains about wasteful spending but does he list out specifically what he would cut? No. What a bunch of nonsense.